Go with the 60?

Dear Editor:

Congress: Stop treating our debt as if it were a political football! Surely both parties know that our debt must go down, not up, starting now. We, not our children and grandchildren, deserve the pain. The Democrats were critical of Republicans in 2006 as Obama prepared to run for president. His March 16 speech stating why he would not vote for increasing the debt has been the best, most patriotic speech ever in Congress. I don’t know who wrote it, but if one removed all the Republican bashing and just heard the logical reasoning for why we cannot raise the ceiling, it made sense. Biden also made a world class (and Republican bashing) speech and would not vote to raise the limit.

Now the Democrats and Republicans have swapped shoes, and speeches. What do intelligent voters think when they hear such hypocritical rantings? A recent poll answers that; 60 percent of Americans want to replace Washington in total. When Bill Clinton was inaugurated Jan. 20, 1993, he inherited a national debt of $4.18 trillion. Economists said (and still say) our rising debt was unsustainable, and that the longer we wait to correct it, the more painful the process will be. But we voters would rather spend our children’s money than our own (as noted in the March 16, 2006 speeches).

Biden said: “Over $3 trillion in debt, foreign debt and debt held by Americans, has been piled up by this administration (in five years).” Obama and Pelosi piled up over $3 trillion in two years. Both parties seem oblivious to what such borrowing does to future Congresses and to Americans.

Neither political party ever mentions paying our debt. Deficit spending is in the future as far as they can see. Liberal Robert Reich, in his book “Aftershock,” offers some theoretical solutions to show the pains to come. He defined the problem as “living beyond our means.” He realized that we must take people’s money (not just income taxes), and he, like Pelosi and I, believe we must have stiffer death taxes; but unlike Pelosi, he and I believe the taxes must go to pay down the debt. Pelosi wants to spend the money and continue borrowing.

And conservative Tom Coburn’s book “The Debt Bomb” writes “the Debt is too deep and the sides are too steep.” He wrote, “the debt bomb was built by a culture, and it will be defused by a culture. As a nation, we have to make a decision to live within our means and embrace a government we can afford, not one we want.” It is obvious, but both parties must be interested in making that change. Today they are ridiculously divided.

Obamacare is not a Republican problem. It has been dying a natural death for months. The problem is the debt and both parties using it to keep us prosperous via borrowed money. At some point Biden said, “History will not judge this (Bush’s) record kindly.” Wonder how Obama’s record will be judged?